Roads turned into rivers as monsoon rains hit Mumbai

Traffic grinds to a halt as water clogs the streets of Mumbai. [Praful Gangurde/Getty Images]

Roads in Mumbai have been transformed into rivers after torrential rain fell across the Indian city.

The heavy burst of monsoon rains on Sunday dropped 157mm of rain in just 24 hours, flooding roads and bringing traffic to a standstill.

The monsoon typically lasts from early June to late September and brings 94 percent of the rain expected in the city in the entire year.

So far, the rains have brought an "average" amount of rain to the state of Maharashtra. This is good news because too much rain can lead to flooding, as is currently the case in northeast India, Bangladesh and Nepal and too little rain can trigger drought, as was seen in the state last year.

Mumbai is likely to see more disruption in the coming days, with the India Meteorological Department warning of more extremely heavy rain to come.